Audun decided that Frostweaver must have done something special to the map; he could recall the way to the Arid Desert as if it were etched on the air in front of him even as he flew, and his memory wasn’t usually so precise. The sun had been shining when he left the island, but the sky darkened only a few miles out and rain began to fall. Fighting his way through a vicious squall that lashed the southernmost shoreline of the Icy Sea, he followed the curve of the land until he reached the range of mountains that defined the western edge of the Kingdom of Bullrush. He skirted the mountains and went inland, turning west again before reaching the mountains of Upper Montevista. It took him two days to get that far. Another day of flying carried him across the desert of East Aridia where it was so hot that he began to sweat with his tongue and from the bottoms of his feet.
It was night when he passed over the castle in the center of a huge city. The castle was wide, with tall spires and pennants flying everywhere. Row upon row of soldiers were lined up around the inside perimeter of an enormous courtyard in the middle of the castle grounds. Bright torches edging the courtyard showed that a mosaic depicting an older man with flowing, white hair covered the very center. A man with a shining bald head stood at the edge of the mosaic beside a man who looked remarkably like the one pictured. When the bald-headed man raised his arms, the crowd grew quiet. He paused, as if for effect, then performed an intricate gesture with his hands. Audun realized that the man must be a wizard when the mosaic seemed to come to life, blinking and opening its mouth to speak. The man in the mosaic talked about the bravery of his army and congratulated the officers who had led the soldiers into battle. He spoke of the conquest of another kingdom and of how much the subjects in East Aridia would benefit. Audun thought that the man who looked like the mosaic might be doing the actual talking, but he couldn’t tell for sure without going closer.
As Audun circled overhead, the face in the mosaic stopped talking and grew still and lifeless once again. The soldiers cheered, saluting the man with the flowing hair. They held their spears aloft and shook them; the glint of metal in the torchlight reminded Audun of the soldiers who had shot arrows at him in Upper Montevista, so he turned once more and headed back over the open desert.
On the fourth day he reached Aridia. A dry, hot wind was blowing, slowly moving dunes of golden sand across the land below him. Growing up in the Icy North, he had seen countless snowdrifts, but none so wide that they stretched as far as he could see. The heat radiating off the dunes parched his throat and made him wish for the rain that he’d battled only days before.
Audun closed his inner lids to protect his eyes from the biting, wind-carried sand, but even though he flew high above the ground, he could hear the sand hissing against his scales and feel it scouring away the grime he’d acquired while traveling. By dusk he still had not found any birds, let alone the desicca bird he’d seen in Frostweaver’s image.
Audun stayed aloft until long after the sun had set and the searing heat of the sand had cooled enough that he could land. Settling on the ground, he welcomed the night chill that enveloped the desert, and fell into a fitful sleep where images of Millie crying as her mother whisked her away made him growl and twitch his wings.
The heat returned with the morning and once again Audun took to the air. He hadn’t gone far before he saw an enormous bird flying far off in the distance. Even in the Icy North, dragons had heard of rocs, but it was the first time Audun had ever seen one. He wondered what other kinds of creatures might live in the desert and was surprised when a short time later he glanced down and saw the ground moving. Drawing closer, he spotted a horde of insects with daggerlike stingers arched over their backs scuttling across the sand. As he passed over wind-eroded ruins, he saw an enormous snake with an arrow- shaped head investigating the remains of a collapsed wall.
A little farther on, he watched as a huge cat nearly the color of the sand slunk along the ground, stalking its prey. He would have thought nothing more of it if he hadn’t seen what the cat was hunting. Three human children were shuffling across the sand, looking forlorn and bedraggled. The boys, who weren’t very big, were half-carrying, half-dragging a girl even smaller than themselves. Audun might have continued on if the little girl hadn’t glanced up just as he flew overhead. She looked terrified, but what made Audun want to stop and help them was the girl’s blond hair and the shape of her face: the little girl looked much the way Millie must have when she was very young.
Audun was too far away to hear what the girl said when she pointed up at him, but he could see the frightened looks on the boys’ faces. The older boy dropped the little girl’s hand and reached into his waistband for a forked stick. Audun didn’t know what he was going to do with it until the boy set a stone on a leather strap tied to the prongs of the stick. He was pulling back on the strap when the big cat wiggled its rump and charged. Not wanting to see what happened when the cat reached the children, Audun tucked his wings close to his body and aimed for the beast. The younger children began to scream just as Audun opened his mouth and roared. The boy let the leather sling go as the dragon flew over their heads and the stone bounced off Audun’s neck. The young dragon barely felt it as he flew past them and landed in the big cat’s path. With its fur bristling, the cat pulled up short. Faced with an angry dragon three times its size, the animal turned and ran.
To Audun’s surprise, the boy turned to him and bowed, saying, “Thank you most kindly, gracious dragon. I apologize for thinking you meant us harm when you were really defending us from that horrid lion. I never thought I’d see a dragon here. My name is Galen and these two are my brother Samuel and my sister, Shanna.”
All three children had straight hair bleached to a pale blond, but while Galen had blue eyes, the other children’s were a warm brown. With their straight noses and squared chins, Audun would have known they were siblings even if Galen hadn’t told him so.
“You are most welcome, young sir,” said Audun. “I am Audun of the Icy North. If I may ask, how is it that you can talk to dragons?”
The little boy shrugged. “We had a tutor who had some magic. He taught us many things.”
“Where is your tutor now? Why are you here without an adult to protect you?”
Shanna pulled a piece of cloth from her sleeve and clutched it to her chest. Audun noticed that it had a wooden head and was roughly shaped like a human. “We ran away,” she said, and popped her thumb into her mouth.
“We had to,” said Galen. “We lived in Desidaria, the city that surrounds the royal castle of King Cadmus, although the castle no longer belongs to him. He was killed in the war.”
“There’s been a war?” Audun remembered the throngs of armed people he’d seen in the courtyard in East Aridia.
Galen nodded. “It ended just a few days ago. King Beltran of East Aridia sent his soldiers to attack Desidaria. They defeated our soldiers and ransacked the city. A lot of people were killed, including our king. His brother, Dolon, swore fealty to King Beltran. Dolon sits on the throne of Aridia now.”
Shanna pulled her thumb out of her mouth to tug at her brother’s sleeve. “What about Owen? Can the dragon help us get Owen back?”
“We have to go,” said Samuel. “Owen could be hurt.”
“Who is Owen?” asked Audun.
Galen rubbed the side of his head and frowned. “He’s our older brother. After King Beltran left, there were a lot of orphans and nobody knew what to do with them. Dolon said that they could all come live in the palace. He put us with them until Owen was able to sneak away from where he’d been in training and come for us.”
“Owen rescued us!” said Shanna. “He was very brave!”
“Owen helped us get out of the city,” said Samuel. “He was taking us to our aunt’s home on the other side of the desert when the roc came.”
“It came down, whoosh!” Shanna said, demonstrating with her hand. “And took Owen away.”
“We were going after him when you found us,” said Galen. “It’s what he would have done if one of us had been carried off.”
“Do you think he’s all right?” Shanna asked, her brown eyes big and round.
“I’m sure he is,” Galen said, but he didn’t sound very convincing.
“We have a problem, though,” said Samuel.
Audun raised a brow ridge. “Only one?”
“He means we’re lost,” said Shanna.
“Owen was the one who knew the way,” explained Galen. “I thought I knew which way the roc took him, but I’ve been getting all turned around . . .”
Shanna rubbed her eyes with a grubby hand, wiping away a tear. “I want to go home, Galen!”
“I know, Shanna,” said her older brother, as he put his arm around her. “That’s what we all want. But we can’t go back to Desidaria now.”
“I can take you to your aunt’s home,” said the dragon, “as long as you can tell me where it is.”
Samuel shook his head. “We have to get Owen first. We can’t go anywhere without him!”
“Could you help us find him?” asked Galen. “We could find him faster if you were looking for him, too.”
“You have wings!” Shanna said through her tears.
“We’d go with you,” said Samuel. “If we were all looking—”
“I can’t take you with me. You’d be in the way. And I can’t leave you here. It isn’t safe. I’ll take you to your aunt and come back and look for Owen.”
“No!” cried Samuel. “He’s our brother. We have to go rescue him!”
“Take my help the way I offer it, or don’t get it at all. It’s up to you. I have my own task ahead of me, so if you don’t want my help . . .”
“But we do!” Galen said. “You and I could take Shanna and Samuel to our aunt’s home, then I could go with you.”
“Galen!” shouted his brother and sister in unison.
“That wasn’t what I offered,” said Audun.
“Then we accept your offer as it was given,” said Galen through stiff lips. Audun thought he looked as if he wanted to cry.
Audun crouched down and bent his neck so the children could climb on more easily. “We’d better hurry,” he said. “I have a lot of flying to do.”
With the map that Frostweaver had shown him set in his mind, Audun was able to use the children’s scanty memories of the way to their aunt’s home to head in the right direction. It took him longer to find the town than it had to cross the desert, but when he did he landed on the outskirts and refused to go into the town itself. Although the children assured him that their aunt would want to thank him, Audun couldn’t help but remember the reception he’d gotten from other humans.
“Do you know the way to your aunt’s home from here?” Audun asked as the children clambered down.
Galen nodded. “I came to visit her last year. I know right where she lives.”
“You’re going back for Owen, aren’t you?” Samuel asked, his brow creased with worry.
“I’m going to start looking for him now,” said Audun. Dipping his head to the children, he spread his wings, pausing only long enough to say, “I’ll bring him back if it’s at all possible.”
“Are you sure I can’t go with you?” asked Galen. “Two pairs of eyes can see more than one.”
“That’s true,” said Audun. “But dragon eyes can see farther than human eyes. And trying to take something away from a roc won’t be easy or safe. If you go with me, I’ll have to worry about you as well as your brother. You don’t want me to be distracted when I’m trying to rescue him, do you?”
The little boy looked at the ground and muttered, “I guess not.”
“Besides, your brother and sister need you to take them to your aunt. Someone bigger and stronger than them has to show them the way. Samuel and Shanna are depending on you.”
“That’s true,” Galen said, glancing at the smaller children. Shanna was rubbing her eyes again and it was obvious that she was having a hard time keeping them open. Aside from two bright red spots on his cheeks, Samuel looked pale and shaky.
“Take care of each other,” Audun said, backing away so he could flap his wings without knocking the children over.
“Thank you!” Galen shouted as the dragon took off.
Audun didn’t know much about rocs, other than that they were big. He’d heard that they might fight dragons if provoked, but no one he knew had ever fought one and he didn’t want to be the first. If rocs were as territorial as a lot of other birds he knew, there probably wouldn’t be too many in one area, which meant that the bird he had seen before might be the very one he had to find now. With the wind shifting the sand, it wasn’t easy to find a certain spot in the desert, but Audun was sure he had come pretty close. He flew in the direction that he thought the roc had gone, looking for any sort of sign that a big bird had passed that way.
It was late in the day when he saw the first droppings. Something big had created the huge black and white speckled piles that littered the desert floor like half-melted globs of snow. The enormous feather resting on the sand beside them was as long as his wings were wide.
A penetrating scent grew stronger as he flew on. The ground below him began to change. Instead of sand, he saw rocky outcroppings with occasional withered plants growing in the cracks. The outcroppings became taller and more misshapen the farther he went, until a bizarre garden of weirdly shaped formations lay before him. Having been blasted by wind and sand for many years, the stones had taken on outlines unlike anything else in nature. Fantastic protuberances, curves, and spires stood sentinel, casting their shadows on the land as the sun prepared to set.
Still following the scent of the roc, Audun eventually came upon a tall spire with a nest made of entire trees stacked and woven together on top. Vines as big around as a human man’s waist helped to hold it together. Audun was impressed by the enormous distances the roc must have flown to bring such big trees to build a nest. He was even more impressed as he drew closer and could see the nest’s actual size. A dozen dragons could have slept in the nest without any one touching another.
At first the nest appeared to be empty, but then he saw movement: a down-covered baby roc three times the size of a baby dragon waddled from one side to the other. Audun had flown close enough to spot another fledgling when he heard a loud squawk and saw a shadow pass overhead. The mother roc was back, bringing food for her babies. With the enormous bird approaching, Audun didn’t have much of a choice; he could hide or fly away and hope she hadn’t seen how close he had been to her nest. Because he still didn’t know if Owen was there, hiding seemed like the better choice.
Audun put on a burst of speed and flew under the nest to latch on to one of the tree trunks with his talons. Hanging upside down beneath the nest, he turned his head to the side as rotting bark became dislodged, pattering around him as it fell. There was another painfully loud squawk and the entire nest dipped down when the adult roc landed. The nest continued to shake while she walked across it, chirruping softly to her babies. Audun tried not to make a sound as he fought to hold on.
Something heavy hit the nest as the roc dropped whatever she had brought to her babies. There was more thrashing only feet above Audun’s head, making more debris rain through the cracks. Peering through the gaps in the interwoven trees, the young dragon could just make out the patterns of a two-foot-thick snake that reared up when one of the babies pecked it.
With the snake hissing just above his head, Audun moved to the other side of the nest, looking for something to indicate that the boy, Owen, had been there. He was halfway to the outer edge when both babies attacked the snake at once and the mother joined in to help them, making the nest bounce and shake.
Stopping to peer up through the tree trunks every few feet, Audun eventually reached the far side of the nest and began to move along its rim. He was working his way around a thicker cluster of branches, trying to see through some still-attached foliage, when a face appeared and two vivid blue eyes blinked at him. The face was that of a human boy about the same age as Millie and her friends, and his hair was the same shade of yellow as that of the three children Audun had just met.
Audun hadn’t expected to find the boy as easily as this. “Are you Owen?” he whispered.
The boy looked stunned. He drew back, but the branches wouldn’t allow him to go far. “How do you know my name?” he asked.
“Your brothers and sister sent me to find you. I’m here to take you to them.”
Hope lit the boy’s eyes. In his excitement, his voice was louder than before. “You’ve seen them? Are they all right?”
“Shh!” said Audun. “Not so loud or the birds will come looking. Galen and the others are fine. They’re just worried about you. Is there any way down from there?”
“You mean a hole through the bottom? I don’t think so. I was looking for one, but this is all I’ve found. It’s sort of a pocket between the trunks. The little ones can’t reach me, but I won’t stand a chance if a big one comes looking for me. There are two adults. The one that brought me has been gone for a while. I thought I could wait until night and climb down if I could find a gap big enough to let me through.”
Audun turned his head and stretched his neck to see what was below him. The nest was on a pedestal of stone with sheer drops on every side. Unless the boy was a very good climber, he wouldn’t have made it, especially in the dark.
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Audun whispered to the boy. “I can’t get to you from here, but if you climb onto the nest I can carry you away.”
“Why should I trust you? How do I know you really helped my brothers and sister?”
“I didn’t come to steal you from a roc’s nest so I could eat you, if that’s what you’re thinking. Do you want my help or not?”
A tree trunk groaned as the adult roc settled her weight on it. The sun was going down. Although Audun was looking forward to the cool of the night, he wasn’t so sure how well a human would fare. The other roc would probably be back soon, making it that much harder for Owen to sneak out of the nest.
“If I draw the adult roc away, do you think you could climb out and hang on to the bottom of the nest until I come back to get you? I’ll be as fast as I can, but we should do this now.”
“I think I can,” said Owen. “I used a branch to keep them off me before. How will you draw the big one away?”
“That,” said Audun, “will be the easy part.”
Audun’s talons wouldn’t let go at first, after having gripped so tightly for so long. When he could finally move them, they were stiff, but he was able to work his way to a spot where there weren’t any protruding branches to get in his way. Finding a clear space below him, Audun let go of the nest and fell, opening his wings with a snap. Gliding out from under the nest, he beat his wings when he was past the edge and rose up so that he could look inside. The two babies lay beside their mother, their bellies full and rounded. At the sound of Audun’s wings, the adult bird opened her eyes and looked him full in the face. “Awk!” she cried, nearly deafening Audun.
Throwing his head back, Audun roared, the sound of his voice almost as loud. Then, before the roc could react, he flew straight at her head, slapping it with his tail as he flew up and over her.
The nest tipped abruptly as the adult roc launched herself into the air. She came after Audun as if her tail were on fire, her shrill screams echoing off the rock in front of him. Audun angled his wings and began to climb. The roc was right behind him, her heavy wings pounding the air with a whump! whump! Veering this way and that around the bizarrely shaped spires, Audun led the giant bird away from her nest. Miles of ground sped by below him, yet he could still hear the roc screaming.
He was at the very edge of the formations when he glanced back. The roc was finally out of sight, so Audun angled his head and body and took off back toward the nest, faster than most dragons and much faster than any bird as big as a roc could ever fly. Circling around, Audun sped back to the nest but was only part of the way there when he saw another roc far off in the distance, heading in the same direction. Audun didn’t have much time. He focused on the nest ahead, and put all his strength into going even faster.
“Climb on!” Audun shouted, as he reached the boy. “Hurry, the other roc is coming!”
At the sight of a dragon, the baby birds squawked and fluttered to the other side while Owen scrambled onto Audun’s back.
“Hold on tight!” ordered the dragon. He beat his wings and flew as fast as he could until they were well over the desert.
Audun had slowed to a more comfortable pace when Owen finally tried to talk to him. “Where are you taking me?” he asked.
“To the town where your aunt lives. It’s where I dropped off your brothers and sister. They said it was where you were headed when the roc took you.”
“I don’t know how to thank you,” said Owen. “I still can’t believe a dragon is helping us. Why are you here, anyway? I’ve never seen a white dragon like you before.”
“I’m from the Icy North. I’ve come looking for a desicca bird.”
“A what? No, wait! I’ve heard of them, although I don’t know very much. They’re really rare, even more rare than rocs. The only place they’ve ever been seen is around oases. I guess that’s where you should look. I wish I could tell you more.”
“Actually, you’ve helped a lot. I’ll head for an oasis as soon as I drop you off.”
“It will be night by then. It gets awfully cold in the desert at night.”
“I know,” said Audun. “I’m looking forward to it.”